Activists Find Evidence of Formosa Plant in Texas Still Releasing Plastic Pollution Despite $50 Million Settlement

Julie-Dermansky-022
on

On the afternoon of January 15, activist Diane Wilson kicked off a San Antonio Estuary Waterkeeper meeting on the side of the road across from a Formosa plastics manufacturing plant in Point Comfort, Texas.ย After Wilson and the waterkeeper successfully sued Formosa, the company agreed to no longer release even one of the tiny plastic pellets known as nurdles into the regionโ€™s waterways. The group of volunteers had assembled that day to check whether the plant was still discharging these raw materials of plastics manufacturing.ย ย ย 

Their suit against Formosa Plastics Corp. USA resulted in a $50-million-dollar settlement and a range of conditions in an agreement known as a consent decree. Key among the conditions was the companyโ€™s promise to halt releasing the nurdles it manufactures into local waterways leading to the Texas Gulf Coast by Januaryย 15.

Wilson described the occasion as โ€œday one of the zero discharge settlement.โ€ As of that date, Formosa could be fined up to $15,000 a day if it were found still discharging nurdles. That would put the multi-billion-dollar plastics maker in violation of the court settlement made after U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt determined the company had violated the Clean Water Act by discharging plastic pellets and PVC powder into Lavaca Bay and Cox Creek in a June 27 ruling lastย year.

The deal, signed by Judge Hoyt in December, represents the U.S.โ€™s largest settlement in a Clean Water Act lawsuit brought by private individuals against anย industrial polluter. The settlement mandates that both Formosa and the plaintiffs agree to a monitor, remediation consultant, engineer, and trustee for ongoing monitoring of theย plant.

Formosa's Point Comfort plant looms over the town and its water tower
Formosaโ€™s plastics plant dominating the landscape in Point Comfort,ย Texas.

Diane Wilson and volunteers before their meeting across from Formosa's Point Comfort plant
Diane Wilsonย with volunteers before their meetingย across the street from Formosaโ€™s Point Comfort manufacturing plant.
ย 

After calling the groupโ€™s meeting to order, Wilson gave an update on how requirements of the consent decree were progressing. The volunteer team of nurdle monitors, who have been collecting nurdles discharged by the plant for the last four years, listened eagerly. Wilson said that Formosa had missed the January 15 deadline to deliver the waivers they needed to sign, which would grant them permission to monitor on the companyโ€™s property along the fence line. Without the signed forms, the group put off their on-the-ground monitoring trip. Instead, they headed for the banks of Cox Creek, where Wilson set off in a kayak to check on one of the plantโ€™sย outfalls.

Within 10 minutes she collected an estimated 300 of the little plastic pellets. Wilson says she will save them as evidence, along with any additional material the group collects, to present to the official โ€” and yet-to-be-selected โ€”ย monitor.

Wilson received the waiver forms from Formosa a day after the deadline. The group plans to set out by foot on January 18, which will allow them to cover more ground on their next monitoring trip. They hope to check all of the facilityโ€™s 14 outtakes where nurdles could be still be escaping. Any nurdles discharged on or after January 15 in the area immediately surrounding the plant would be in violation of the courtย settlement.

Ronnie Hamrick picking up nurdles near Formosa's Point Comfort plant
Ronnie Hamrick picking up a mixture of new and legacy nurdles near Formosaโ€™s Point Comfortย plant.

Ronnis Hamrick holding some of the countless nurdles littering the banks of Cox Creek near Formosa's Point Comfort plant
Ronnie Hamrick holds a few of the countless nurdles that litter the banks of Cox Creek near Formosaโ€™s Point Comfortย facility.

Pointing along the creekโ€™s edge, Ronnie Hamrick, a member of theย San Antonio Estuary Waterkeeperย and former Formosa employee, showed me how to distinguish new plastic pellets from the legacy nurdles from past discharges. The new ones are brighter and white compared to the older ones, which take on a dull gray color. Old nurdles were plentiful along the creekโ€™s banks despite cleanup crews deployed by Formosa in that area. Newer ones were easy to find in the water after Hamrick pushed a rake into the marsh, stirring them up from below the waterโ€™s surface in Coxย Creek.

When Wilson returned from her kayak, she showcased her find: The nurdles she had just collected from the Formosa outfall were bright white, making them easy to distinguish from the older ones littering the bank where she had launched her kayak. She plans to turn them over as evidence of newly discharged nurdles to the official monitor once one is selected in accordance to the consentย decree.

Diane Wilson holds a bag of nurdles over her kayak after collecting them from Formosa's outfall
Diane Wilson holding up a bag full of nurdles she collected from one of Formosaโ€™s outfall areas on Januaryย 15.

Lawsuit Against Formosaโ€™s Planned Louisiana Plant

On that same afternoon, Wilson learned thatย conservation and community groups in Louisiana had sued the Trump administration, challenging federal environmental permits for Formosaโ€™s planned $9.4 billionย plastics complexย in St. James Parish.ย ย 

The news made Wilson smile. โ€œI hope they win. The best way to stop the company from polluting isย not to let them build another plant,โ€ she toldย me.ย 

The lawsuit was filed in federal court against the Army Corps of Engineers, accusing the Corps ofย failing to disclose environmental damage and public health risks and failing to adequately consider environmental damage from the proposed plasticsย plant.ย Wilson had met some of theย Louisiana-based activists last year when a group of them had traveled to Point Comfort and protested with her outside Formosaโ€™s plastics plant that had begun operations in 1983.ย Among them was Sharon Lavigne, founder of the community group Rise St. James, who lives just over a mile and a half from the proposed plastics complex inย Louisiana.

Back then, Wilson offered them encouragement in their fight. A few months after winning her own case last June, she gave them boxes of nurdles she had used in her caseย against Formosa. The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups in the Louisiana lawsuit, transported the nurdles to St. James. The hope was that these plastic pellets would help environmental advocates there convince Louisiana regulators to deny Formosaโ€™s request for air permits required for building its proposed St. James plastics complex that would also produce nurdles. On January 6, Formosa received those permits, but it still has a few more steps before receiving full approval for theย plant.

Anne Rolfes and Louisiana Bucket Brigade hold nurdles discharged from Formosa's Point Comfort plant
Anne Rolfes, founder of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, holding up a bag of nurdles discharged from Formosaโ€™s Point Comfort, Texas plant, at a protest against the companyโ€™s proposed St. James plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on December 10,ย 2019.

In their January 15 lawsuit, the groups, which also include Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and Healthy Gulf, point out that aย Texas judge called Formosaโ€™s Point Comfort plant a โ€œserial offenderโ€ of the Clean Water Act. They also citeย another Formosa facility in Baton Rouge,ย Louisiana, which has been in violation of the Clean Air Act every quarter sinceย 2009.ย 

Formosa's Point Comfort, Texas, plastics plant
Construction underway to expand Formosaโ€™s Point Comfortย plant.

Formosa's Point Comfort plant and smoke over the rural landscape
Silhouette of Formosaโ€™s Point Comfort Plant looming over the rural landscape.

The new plant slated for St. James Parish โ€œis expected to emit and discharge a variety of pollutants, including carcinogens and endocrine disrupters, into the air and water; [and] discharge plastic into theย Mississippi River and other waterbodies,โ€ the lawsuitย alleges.

DeSmogโ€™s Sharon Kelly reported that out of all the new or expanding U.S. refineries, liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects, and petrochemical plants seeking air permits, Formosaโ€™s St. James plant would top the list of airย polluters.

โ€œWilsonโ€™s victory against Formosa was very encouraging,โ€ Sharon Lavigne told me over the phone. She plans to cite it as one of the many reasons why the St. James Parish Council should reverse its 2018 decision to grant Formosa a land use permit for the sprawling plastics facility. She and others will address the council over a multitude of issues at its upcoming January 21ย meeting.

From the Gulf Coast toย Europe

Just a day after Wilson found apparently new nurdles in Point Comfort,ย the Plastic Soup Foundation, an advocacy group based in Amsterdam, tookย legal steps to stop plastic pellet pollutionย inย Europe. On behalf of the group, environmental lawyersย submitted an enforcement request to a Dutch environmental protection agency, which is responsible for regulating the cleanup of nurdles polluting waterways in theย Netherlands.

The foundation is the first organization in Europe to take legal steps to stop plastic pellet pollution.ย It cites in its enforcement requestย to regulators Wilsonโ€™s victory in obtaining aย โ€œzero dischargeโ€ promise from Formosa and is seeking a similar result againstย Ducor Petrochemicals,ย the Rotterdam plastic producer. Its goal is to prod regulators into forcing Ducor to remove tens of millions of plastic pellets from the banks immediately surrounding its petrochemicalย plant.

Warning sign near Formosa's Point Comfort plant and waterways
Detail of a warning sign near the Point Comfort Formosa plant. The waterways near the plant are polluted by numerous industrial facilities in theย area.

Nurdles on the banks of Cox Creek
Nurdles on Cox Creekโ€™s bank on January 15, 2020. Wilson hopes her and her colleaguesโ€™ work of the past four years will help prevent the building of more plastics plants, including the proposed Formosa plant in St. Jamesย Parish.ย 

Besides polluting waterways, the ongoing build-out of the petrochemical and plastics industry doesnโ€™t align with efforts to keep global warming inย check.

Wilson and her fellow volunteers plan to keep monitoring the Point Comfort plant until it stops discharging the tiny plastic pellets into Texas watersย entirely.ย 

I reached out to Formosa about whether it was aware its Point Comfort plant was apparently still discharging nurdles but didnโ€™t receive a reply beforeย publication.

Formosa Wetlands Walkway built from recycled plastics
A sign noting the entrance to the Formosa Wetlands Walkway at Port Lavacaย Beach. The San Antonio Estuary Waterkeeper describes the messaging as an example ofย greenwashing.

Main image: Diane Wilson kayaking to the fence line of Formosaโ€™s Point Comfort plant to check for nurdles newly discharged from the plant on January 15, 2020. Credit: All photos and video by Julie Dermansky forย DeSmog

Julie-Dermansky-022
Julie Dermansky is a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers Universityโ€™s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Visit her website at www.jsdart.com.

Related Posts

on

Former ExxonMobil climate scientist Lindsey Gulden: "It was after I was fired for reporting a garden variety fraud that I really sat back and thought about the implications for climate change."

Former ExxonMobil climate scientist Lindsey Gulden: "It was after I was fired for reporting a garden variety fraud that I really sat back and thought about the implications for climate change."
on

Lucy von Sturmer and Duncan Meisel are building communities of creatives dedicated to preventing the advertising and public relations industry from casting polluters as climate saviours.

Lucy von Sturmer and Duncan Meisel are building communities of creatives dedicated to preventing the advertising and public relations industry from casting polluters as climate saviours.
on

Corporations have found ways to be heard during negotiations on reversing the drastic global decline in plant and animal life.

Corporations have found ways to be heard during negotiations on reversing the drastic global decline in plant and animal life.
on

Was the environmental monitoring for the Crescent Midstream oil spill as robust as regulators claim?

Was the environmental monitoring for the Crescent Midstream oil spill as robust as regulators claim?